NW Region Committee Meeting Minutes 10th February 2009

                             NW REGIONAL COMMITTEE MEETING

Venue:

 

North West Regional Control Centre, Warrington

4.30pm 10^th February 2009

Minutes of Meeting

 

1.                 Present:

Derek Wignall (Chair)                                                         Lancashire Constabulary

                Jim Irving (Secretary)                                                         Cumbria Constabulary (Long Retired)

Tracey Mott (Administration Manager)                         BAPCO

Colin Evans                                                                          C I T Services Ltd

Chris Tyrrall (Vice Chair)                                                   Raynet

Brian Mitchelhill                                                                  NW FireControl

 

 

 

2.       Apologies:-

Apologies were received from:-

Ken Mott (Chief Executive)                                              BAPCO

Peter Graham                                                                       Caldew Consulting Ltd

Rochelle Hunt                                                                      NWAS

Graham Curry                                                                      NWAS

 

 

3.       Welcome & Admin arrangements

          Derek welcomed members to the meeting and thanks were portrayed to Brian for use of the premises for the meeting.   

Dominic Whelen from NW Fire ControlCentre introduced himself and explained a little about the centre to the Committee.

 

4.       Minutes of Meeting 12^th November 2008.

The Minutes of the last Meeting of 1^st July 2008 which had been circulated were altered to include apologies from Brian Mitchelhill.

 

5.       Matters Arising:

Euro Project Summaries had not been received by Derek so Jim gave him a copy.

 

 

6.       National Matters

National Executive

Jim said that an Executive Meeting took place on 18^th December at The Yew Lodge, Kegworth and outlined the areas of business of regional interest. 

 

 

Finances

Jim reported that a satisfactory report on finances was given at the meeting.

 

            Membership

Membership was reported to be 151 in the NW area (we now have 155). Some new members were recruited through the Roadshows and we would expect there to be some further new members from the EPC Course in February too.

 

Commercial Advisory Group

Colin Evans reported that at the December meeting he had offered to help out by writing articles for CAG for The Journal and help Dave King with meeting arrangements.

Jim Irving reported that during the December meeting revenue sources had been discussed and the membership packages had been put on hold for review again in the future.  The Marketing Advisory Group has now been given approval to research Corporate Partners of BAPCO. This would give Corporate Partners the opportunity to have their logo displayed at events, on the website and marketing material.  Some discussions are believed to have already taken place already with interested parties.

 

BAPCO Journal Report

Jim reported that Journal made several mistakes in the December issue but in general it is improving.  Congratulations were given to Jim from the Chair for his article which appeared regarding the tour of NW Ambulance Control Centre.

 

BAPCO 2009 Conference & Exhibition

Jim reported that sales at the current time were on a par with last year so no evidence yet of the economic downturn having an effect on sales.

There will be no showcase theatre but instead a 2-stream conference with plenary sessions.  The conference brochure is expected to be in circulation in the next few days. The speaker at the Dinner will be Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, Paralympics Athlete.

 

European Projects Report

Jim gave a brief report on the European Projects and the APCO Canada report was circulated.

 

                BAPCO Roadshows

The Roadshows for 2009 will be held in Coventry, Newcastle and London areas and venues are currently being looked at for these.  Once venues have been chosen these will be published on the website.

The focus of the Roadshows will be Security issues generated by 2012 Olympics.

 

Public Radio Spectrum

It was reported at the Executive meeting that only once response was sent to the Chief Executive for him to respond on behalf of BAPCO members.

 

Governance & Structure Review

Succession planning had been discussed by The Elected Officers and The Chief Executive and it was proposed to the Executive Committee that with effect from 1^st May 2009 Ray Trotter would become Chief Executive and Ken Mott will be appointed Life President.  The Executive Committee were keen to keep the skills and knowledge of Ken Mott within BAPCO.  This proposal was passed by the Committee for consideration at the AGM on 22 April 2009.

 

Marketing Advisory Group

Jim reported that certificates are now issued to delegates attending a BAPCO event which has educational content. He also reported that extra finances will be needed for BAPCO and that a Group chaired by Keith Phillips was examining the feasibility of bringing in house the planning, organisation and management of the annual conference and exhibition .  The findings will be reported to The Executive Committee in April 2009.

 

Business Plan 2009

The budgets and the Business Plan were approved.

 

Regional Reports

Scotland Region reported they are holding another event in February at Strathclyde Fire HQ Hamilton ‘Planning the Way Forward’.  (Secretary’s note now being held at Hamilton Racecourse on 25 February 2009)

North East Region reported that they held a tour of Highways Agency in December.

South West Region reported they are planning an event at The FireControl Centre in Taunton for January 2009 (Jim reported that he attended this and there were in excess of 60 attendees on the day).

South East held a seminar and mini exhibition on 26^th November in Essex at which over 40 people attended. The Chair of the SE is now Alan Lindfield.

West Midlands Region reported that they are planning a members meeting in March.  East Midlands Region had reported that they were planning to hold and event in March at Peterborough.

 

Website

The new website is up and running, some member profiles are still missing but it is coming together nicely now.

 

7a.     Regional membership

          Membership for the region now stands at 155.

 

7b.    Regional action Plan to be prepared by 28^th February

1)       Improve communications with our members.

It was felt that we already do this quite well anyway but it was agreed that an email should be sent to all NW members to inform them of the new website. Action: Tracey to send email.

2)       Arrange a programme of Regional Events

A meeting for members is currently being planned for Blackpool Airport and this is to be in May (Date TBC). Action: Colin Evans to confirm date with his contact at The Airport. Tracey will find a contact for The Highways Agency and approach them with a view to a tour in November 2009.  The FireControl Centre in the NW will be happy to host and event in the New Year 2010.

3)       Target Local Civil Contingencies response agencies to recruit new members:

Actions: It was agreed that Jim would approach Mike Coward for contacts in this area and Tracey would check the Who’s Who Directory. Jim also agreed to contact the Government Office for the North West.

 

8.       Nominations for Officer

There were no nominations put forward for Office, Life Membership or The Gareth Wilkinson Award.  The free place at Annual Conference for the NW region was allocated to Brian Mitchelhill. Action: Derek to notify Ken Mott of the decision by email.

 

9.       AOB

None

 

10.     Date of Next Meetings

19/20^th May in conjunction with visit to Blackpool Airport (TBC)

15^th July – Committee meeting to be held at Lancashire Police HQ, 5pm

18^th November – Committee meeting in conjunction with Highways Agency visit. (TBC)